Since Alexander Graham Bell uttered those famous words “Mr. Watson-come here-I want to see you”, the telephone has evolved into a necessity of modern living. Land-based telephone systems are now found in virtually every home and business in the United States. Recent developments in wireless phones have only magnified this popularity.
As would be expected for such a ubiquitous item, various cultural norms have grown up around the use of the telephone. One such norm is that it is considered rude to sneeze or cough into the telephone set. Another norm is that it is considered rude to discipline one's children while on the telephone. Unfortunately, the events leading to these situations are not always controllable, which forces users to pull the handset away from their mouth and cover it with their hand. This reaction, however, is inconvenient and does not completely eliminate the ability of the other caller to hear the sneeze, cough, or discipline.
One partial solution to these problems is a mute button. Although this feature is common on modern telephones, users frequently are not able to find it when the urge to cough, sneeze, or discipline children arises.
Clearly, there is a need for an automatic way to mute the phone when it is taken away from the user's head.